It is a free educational service in the
public interest, published by the
Worldwide Church of God.

* * * * * * *

You live in a world
of awesome progress, but paradoxically, of appalling evils. WHY? It's
a world held captive, deceived into loving its captivity. Deliverance
from kidnap in deception, human discontent, suffering and death
hastens nearer.

World
peace,happiness and joy are just around the corner.

CHAPTER ONE

THE NEWS has been replete with stories of kidnappings and aircraft
hijackings. Bizarre among them was the Patty Hearst kidnapping, in
which the victim was brainwashed into preferring the criminal life of
the kidnappers to the respectable status ofher parents. Happily,
Patty's mind later became cleared of the delusion.

But most astonishing of all is the actual fact of the colossal
kidnapping of all time-in which the captive for 6,000 years has willed
to pursue the life and evil philosophy of the archkidnapper -- Satan
the devil. The willing victim in this case is the world that inhabits
this planet earth! Yet this world has been so completely deceived that
it cannot realize what actually has happened to it.

In this 20th century a world of awesome progress and material
development is so blinded by the deceptions of the super kidnapper
that it cannot understand the paradoxical fact that its progress is
accompanied with appalling and still escalating evils, which are
inflicting indescribable suffering, frustration and death.

I have enjoyed private conversations with many kings, presidents,
prime ministers, the great and near great of industry and education. I
have discussed with them national and world problems, personal,
social, economic troubles. They are faced with crises, fears and
worries completely beyond their human abilities to solve. There seem
to be no solutions to the human dilemma.

In a famous law school a professor of law devoted 30 minutes of a
speech explaining that lawmaking bodies, judges and supremecourts are
unable to determine right from wrong on many knotty problems before
the courts. WHY?

You live in a world almost 6,000 years along on its course of
history. You see the world as it is today at this advanced stage of
civilization, with its systems of organized society.

It's like coming in on a motion picture already far along on its
sequence of events. Not understanding what led up to the present
sequence of the story, you find yourself perplexed to understand what
you are viewing. If we are to UNDERSTAND what is happening in this
world -- and WHY -- we must backtrack 6,000 and more years. We must
bring into view the origins, the causes, the events that went before
and led up to the perplexities of our day. In no other way can we
understand the present and look intothe future.

Overview in Retrospect

We look back far into prehistory, at the beginning of life and all
things.

There can be no understanding of the present without a right
knowledge of origins. There is no greater cause to present-day
perplexity than the false premise now holding universal acceptance in
modern education -- the theory of evolution.

I have learned, in a lifetime now in its 92nd year, that errors
all too frequently arise from a false premise, carelessly assumed.
The eyeglasses through which all modern thought is viewed is this
theory of evolution. To my satisfaction, after in-depth study and
research, the theory has been proven false. If you prefer to believe
this illusion because it is presently the educational "IN" thing, you
can have no rational understanding or explanation of the conditions
of the world in which you live.

I have learned that basic original truth is revealed truth.
Without it you are left devoid of the knowledge of reality. Evolution
cannot explain the problems and frightening state of humanity. You
cannot understand any purpose for human life. Your very existence is
without meaning.

So I give you here the only rational approach and comprehension of
conditions as they exist.

In the Beginning

In the very beginning, before all else, there existed two living
Beings composed of Spirit, possessing supreme mind, intelligence and
power, and of perfect righteous character. They are revealed in the
biblical book of John, chapter one. One was named the Word (the
spokesman -- the revelatory thought). The other was named God. The
Word ultimately -- almost 2,000 years ago -- was born as Jesus. The
Word also was God -- the second personage of the God family. As a
human, Jesus was "God with us" -- or God in human flesh, born of a
virgin woman, but sired by God.

"All things" were made by him. In Ephesians 3:9 it is revealed
that God created all things BY Jesus Christ.

The Word and God LIVED. What did they do? They created. How did
they live -- what was their "life style"? They lived the way of their
perfect character -- the way of outflowing LOVE. When Christ was
baptized, God the Father said, "You are my beLOVED Son." God LOVED
the Word. And the Word LOVED God -- obeyed him completely.

Two can't walk together except they be agreed. They were in total
agreement and cooperation. Also two can't walk together in continuous
peace except one be the head, or leader, in control. God was leader.

Their way of life produced perfect peace, cooperation, happiness,
accomplishment. This WAY of life became a LAW. Law is a code of
conduct, or relationship, between two or more. One might call the
rules of a sports contest the "law" of the game. The presence of law
requires a penalty for infraction. There can be no law without a
penalty for its violation.

The very fact of law presupposes GOVERNMENT. Government is the
administration and enforcement of law by one in authority over the
law. This necessitates authoritative leadership -- one in command.

When the only conscious life-Beings existed, God was leader--in
authoritative command. Thus, even when the only conscious life-Beings
were God and the Word, there was GOVERNMENT, with God in supreme
command. Since they created other conscious thinking life-beings,
this very fact of necessity put the GOVERNMENT of God over all
creation, with God supreme ruler. Bear in mind the government of God
is based on the LAW of God, which is the way of life of outflowing
LOVE, cooperation, concern for the good of the governed. And this law
of God produces peace, happiness, cooperation through obedience.

Very First Creation: Angels

First, before all else, the God family created angels. Angels are
spirit beings, immortal, with power of mind superior to human.

God creates in dual stages. Angel life was not completed until
CHARACTER had been formed within them. Character may be defined as
the ability of a conscious thinking entity to choose the way of life
of outflowing LOVE -- God's law -- and to will to live that way of
life, even under outside contrary pressure or contrary self-desire.
Once CHARACTER had been formed and lived, angels, composed of spirit,
could never change. I compare it to the pouring of cement or
concrete. When first poured its form and shape changes -- but once
"set," it is hardened and cannot be reshaped or formed.

Scriptures indicate a third of the angels were placed on the earth
prior to final formation of their character.

Following the initial creation of angels, God created the physical
UNIVERSE. Chapters one and two of Genesis state that the earth and
the heavens -- the physical universe with galaxies -- were all
created in the same day. In this instance "day" does not necessarily
mean a 24-hour day, but a general period of time.

Job 38 says plainly the earth was created when angels had been
previously created. God placed a throne of GOVERNMENT on the earth.
Both Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 reveal the cherub Lucifer being placed
on the throne of the earth. II Peter 2:4 reveals that angels SINNED.
Lucifer was a super archangel. Lucifer had been trained in the
administration of God's government on the very throne of God in
heaven. He was supremely beautiful, dazzling in brightness. Vanity
seized him. Vanity is self-glory, self-centeredness, concern for self
even to the point of hostility toward others. He became jealous,
envious, resentful and hostile against God his Creator. He turned
hostile to the law of God. He turned to a way of life of vanity,
covetousness, envy, rivalry, competition, violence and destruction.
And this hostile way of life is itself a LAW. It is the law of
vanity, self-concern, "do your own thing," rebel against the
authority of God. That, then, became the basic LAW of the GOVERNMENT
of Lucifer, whose name was changed to Satan the devil. The name Satan
means "adversary."

So the government of God on the earth had been replaced by the
government of Satan.

This sin of the angels, now called demons, brought on them the
PENALTY of perversion of mind, bitterness, anger, wrath -- but they
had been created immortal. Their character now "set" as evil, being
spirit beings, they can never change. Forever they must suffer the
torture of such perverted and unhappy minds. Their sin brought
physical chaos, decay, ruin and darkness to the physical earth.

Man Is Created

In Psalm 104:30 it is revealed that God sent forth his Spirit, and
RENEWED the face of the earth for MAN.

In Genesis 1:1 God (Hebrew: Elohim -- "Gods," meaning God and the
Word) is revealed as the Creator of the universe, including the
earth. The earth was -- BECAME (resulting from angelic sin) -- tohu
and bohu, Hebrew words meaning "chaotic and in physical confusion,
waste and empty."

Under Satan, darkness replaced light. Later the Word spoke, "Let
there be light," and physical light appeared on earth, dividing day
from the darkness of night. In six 24-hour days God renewed the face
of the earth for men, creating plant, fowl, fish and mammalian life.
On the sixth day, God said: "Let us [God is speaking to the Word]
make man in our image, after our likeness" (Gen. 1:26). The Eternal
(who became Jesus Christ some 4,000 years later) formed man of the
dust of the ground (Gen. 2:7), and upon breath of life entering, man
became a living (not immortal) soul.

This MAN was given temporary physical existence, like animals. But
man differed from animals, being in the form and shape of God. Also,
as many scriptures reveal, man differed also in possessing MIND,
although animals have brain precisely like human brain.

MAN was created to have a personal relationship with God -- to be
begotten as children of God, finally born into the GOD FAMILY.

Grand Purpose for Humanity

Precisely at this point we come to the very root of the world in
which you live today. This is where it all started. This is the point
in time where today's world was started on a course still continuing
in our time. All that had gone before -- the existence of the God
family from eternity -- the creation of angels -- the creation of
matter and the material universe, the presence of angels on the
earth, the THRONE and GOVERNMENT placed on earth -- the SIN of
Lucifer and earth's angels, the replacing of the GOVERNMENT OF GOD by
that of Satan over the earth -- all this was the backdrop to the
creation of MAN on the earth.

What, then, was the divine PURPOSE for the creation of MAN on the
earth?

The very first chapter in all the Bible reveals it, if we have the
wit to comprehend. God -- that is, God and the Word -- created MAN in
God's own image, form and shape. The word image is used in Hebrews
chapter one to designate spiritual CHARACTER.

God created the physical man in dual stages. First, he created one
man -- a male human. It was in God's supreme PURPOSE that the man
reproduce his kind. But the man was unable to do that -- UNTIL God
completed the human creation physically by the addition of a woman,
made from the man. So God anesthetized the man and extracted a rib
out of which he made the woman, named Eve. Then MAN'S physical
creation was complete. Man could now reproduce his kind. But MAN was
not yet spiritually and mentally complete.

Human Mind vs. Animal Brain

Man could not be made into the spiritual and character image of
God without the power of MIND -- thinking, reasoning, decision-making
intelligence.

The modern science of brain research has demonstrated that the
small differences in human brain and animal brain cannot explain the
vastly superior functions and output of the human brain. The human
brain can acquire knowledge of chemistry, geology, astronomy, physics
-- one might say all the vast intricacies of knowledge contained in a
many-volumed encyclopedia. Man can thence can put many parts of such
knowledge together in a thinking and reasoning process. Man has
decision-making ability.

Man has the faculty to use judgment and wisdom. Man has an
appreciation of music, art and literature. Man formulates attitudes
of love, cooperation, sympathy, concern for the good and welfare of
others, or, on the other hand, attitudes of envy, jealousy, disgust,
hatred, competition, strife, revenge and conspiracy for perpetrating
evil. Animal brain is capable of none of these.

It is only by revealed knowledge that this tremendous difference
can be known. And the written Word of God reveals it as the presence
of human spirit within man that sparks, constrains and empowers the
physical brain in humans with intellect. There is no such spirit
within any other form of physical life.

But scientists, bound and held captive by the false concept of
evolution, cannot admit the existence of any such spirit. Their minds
are blinded.

But understand. The human spirit cannot see, hear, taste, smell or
feel -- yet all human knowledge enters the brain through one of those
five channels. The human spirit cannot think. It is the brain that
thinks, as the human spirit empowers it. It is the brain that makes
decisions, formulates attitudes, develops character, either good or
evil.

Now WHY did the Creator God put human spirit within MAN, while no
such spirit is present in animals? The very PURPOSE being worked out
here below is God's supreme PURPOSE of REPRODUCING HIMSELF THROUGH
MAN. Man was created from the ground of the earth, yet to have a
relationship with his Maker. God is composed of Spirit. It is the
divine PURPOSE that man, once godly character is developed within
him, shall be changed from mortal and physical human to immortal and
divine GOD.

As explained in the beginning, God and the Word now form the GOD
FAMILY. Man may be begotten, and then later born as divine GOD. It is
the incredible human potential that each human may become a child of
God, one of the very GOD FAMILY!

Families, Kinds and Varieties

The first law of science is the fact that only life can beget
life. Life cannot come from the not-living. LIFE could not have
gradually come into existence from nothing. God could not have
gradually come into existence. God and the Word ALWAYS have coexisted
-- without father, without mother, having neither beginning of days
nor end of life-but living from eternity through eternity.

Out of matter God created the fauna and the flora -- animal and
vegetable life. We might classify all existence in kingdoms. The
mineral kingdom, the plant kingdom, animal kingdom, human kingdom,
angel kingdom and the GOD KINGDOM. Man was created in the human
kingdom, and potentially may be born into the GOD KINGDOM. But
religionists who boast of being already "born-again Christians" are
sadly deceived.

The ultimate creation of man -- to become GOD -- necessitated the
development of godly CHARACTER within him.

So at this point notice the system of duality in this ultimate GOD
creation. Physically, man was made complete in two stages; first
male, then the addition of female. Spiritually and mentally he was to
be made complete in two stages; first a human mind empowered by a
human spirit. Even as God had supreme MIND, man was made with human
mind. But in mind and spirit man was not yet complete.

To complete his physical creation, once the female was added to
the male, they became ONE as a human family. So, in the spiritual
creation, the addition of the HOLY SPIRIT of God must be added to the
human spirit. This makes the man spiritually AT ONE with God. But
even at this stage the principle of duality is still in force. Once
the Holy Spirit is joined with his human spirit his human mind is
complete, but he is still a human, now begotten as a God person. He
is only an HEIR of God, not an INHERITOR of the God kingdom. He is
only begotten, not yet born as God. The duality principle continues.

Human Birth a TYPE

Human birth is the precise type of GOD birth. In the woman is an
egg cell called an ovum. It possesses potential life. Yet unless
fertilized by the human sperm cell from the body of the father, it
has a life span of less than 28 days. The male sperm cell on entering
it endows it with the start of human life. But to call it already a
BORN human compares to the deceived calling themselves "born-again
Christians."

On conception the ovum is called an embryo. It must grow
physically, fed through the mother. By four months, when taking on
human form, it is called a fetus. It continues through a period of
gestation for nine months from conception to parturition, when it is
born.

The first human, Adam, was created, as we might say by analogy, a
spiritual ovum. He had only a temporary physicochemical existence. If
"fertilized" by the male divine sperm of God (his Holy Spirit --
actually God-LIFE), he would have been begotten, but not yet born as
God.

But GOD is supreme perfect spiritual CHARACTER. Before Adam could
even qualify to be begotten into the GOD family, he had to CHOOSE
between the WAY of God and the WAY of Satan who still sat on the
throne of the earth.

The Two Symbolic Trees

God placed Adam and Eve after creation in the beautiful garden of
Eden. In its midst were two special symbolic trees of tremendous
significance. Adam did not have immortal God life, but God freely
offered it to him through the tree of LIFE.

Adam had to choose between the government of Satan with its
self-centered way of life, and the government of GOD with its
GOD-centered way of life. Each way of life was the basic LAW of a
GOVERNMENT. God could have RESTORED the government of God on earth
through Adam, had he chosen that WAY of ETERNAL LIFE.

On creation, late on the sixth day we call Friday, God briefed
Adam and Eve on the situation. He continued through the Sabbath eve
and on that first Sabbath. He explained that if they adopted the way
of SELF-centeredness, symbolized by the tree of "the knowledge of
good and evil," they would reject God's gift of LIFE (immortal), and
on taking the forbidden fruit they would surely DIE.

After that Sabbath, when Adam neglected looking after his wife,
Eve stole out alone away from her husband. She encountered Satan in
the form of a serpent. The human family was a direct threat to
Satan's continued rule on earth's throne.

Notice, however (Gen. 3), Satan did not say to Eve, "Choose MY
government and my law of vanity and selfcenteredness, and reject
God." He merely tempted her with the city of the forbidden tree,
appealed to her intellectual vanity, suggested God wasn't fair, and
let her succumb to his deception, assuring her she was already an
IMMORTAL SOUL. She was deceived into believing Satan, disbelieving
God and into TAKING of the forbidden fruit. She gave also to her
husband, and Adam willingly disobeyed God. Adam took TO HIMSELF the
knowledge -- that is, the production of knowledge -- of what is good
and what is evil.

Thus the first created human disbelieved God, disobeyed God, chose
to go HIS OWN WAY, do his own thing. Adam did it willingly, but not
apparently willfully.

Willingly, Adam was led into captivity by Satan. He had willingly
gone along with Satan, the arch kidnapper of all time.

A World Held Captive

Adam had been created with the potential to be born a son of GOD.
Even though not as yet even a begotten son of the GOD FAMILY, he had
been created as potentially just that. Once he succumbed to Satan's
WAY of choosing to "do his own thing," in rebellion against a
deliberate command of God, he became spiritually the property of
Satan. He actually had succumbed to the GOVERNMENT of Satan, choosing
the LAW of that government, leading automatically into attitudes of
self-glory, coveting, competition, desire to GET rather than God's
way of GIVE.

All humanity came out of Adam and Eve. The present world was
FOUNDED in them. The WORLD has ever since been HELD captive! The
world had thus chosen THE WAY of the kidnapper, rather than of the
potential Parent!

But God the Father was to pay the ransom price and even yet bring
his potential spiritual children back to him.

At the Foundation of the World

Upon Adam's sin, God closed off the tree of life, until the second
Adam, Jesus Christ, should pay the ransom price.

There cannot be a law without a penalty. The penalty of human sin
is DEATH. At this very foundation of the world, it was determined
that Jesus Christ, as the "Lamb of God," should be slain in payment
of the penalty for all human sin (Rev. 13:8), effective upon
repentance and faith. It was also determined by God at that time that
all Adam's children should die (Heb. 9:27), but as in Adam all must
die, so in Christ the same ALL shall be made alive by a resurrection
from the dead to be judged (I Cor. 15:22).

But still, none could ever be born of God until God's holy and
perfect spiritual character had been instilled within, by individual
choice and proof by performance.

God set apart a 7,000-year period to complete his original SUPREME
PURPOSE of reproducing himself through man. It was a masterminded
MASTER PLAN for working out the PURPOSE here below.

For almost 6,000 years a civilization has developed, which we call
the world. But it has been a world held captive. To this day Satan is
still on that throne.

Meanwhile Satan has worked IN all humans. He has injected into the
world enormous EVILS. Jesus the second Adam came to start an entire
new WORLD OF GOD through the Church.

CHAPTER TWO

Now a United States President talks of Armageddon. The atomic
scientists warn of doomsday. They have set the doomsday clock one
more minute forward -- from four to only three minutes to midnight!

The angry crescendo of world violence heats up furiously, as the
arch kidnapper, in a rage, perceives the fast-approaching END of the
captivity.

Deliverance from kidnap in deception, human discontent, suffering
and death hastens daily nearer. World PEACE, happiness and joy are
just around the corner. The satanic kidnapper is stirred to furious
wrath, for he knows now he has but a very short time left to hold a
whole world captive.

Setting the Master Plan

People do not enjoy being told they are deceived. Though it wounds
human vanity, being told that one is ignorant of the knowledge of the
truth is less painful than suffering the results of the deception.

We all are members of the human family. We need to be awakened to
the fact that this human family was, and still is, the potential
family of the living God. Yet this family was kidnapped at its very
inception, and has remained willingly held captive for 6,000 years to
this very day.

But remember, one who is deceived would not be deceived if he were
aware of the deception. The potential Father of the kidnapped family
has paid the ransom price to free this world held captive, but
humanity has loved the way of life of the kidnapper. That WAY is the
root CAUSE of all the world's troubles, evils and sufferings.
Humanity has been blinded to the WAY of peace, happiness and joyful
accomplishment.

Since writing part one of this series, world violence and agonies
have been heating up. With increasing momentum. We are being
violently hurled into the world crisis at the END OF THIS WORLD!

You need to UNDERSTAND what is prophesied soon to happen -- and
why! You were born into the panorama of world events that started
6,000 years ago. A divine PURPOSE is being worked out here below. The
catastrophic arch kidnapping of 6,000 years ago shall not prevent the
working out of that supreme PURPOSE. An optimist turns the lemons
thrown at him into lemonade. The supreme GOD is turning the evil of
this kidnapping into the supreme GLORY of ALL eternity!

Six thousand years ago, God set his MASTER PLAN of 7,000 years,
for the accomplishment of the most glorious PURPOSE OF ALL TIME AND
ETERNITY.

False scholarly hypotheses notwithstanding, this world had its
origin in the creation of one man, named Adam. He and the wife God
created for him, named Eve, were humanity's first parents. This world
is the human family that sprang from them. Decisions and actions by
our first parents were the CAUSES that have brought the world to its
present state.

Part one of this series revealed origins that led to their human
creation. Of all the religions in this world, none understands who
and what God the Creator actually is. How shameful, when God reveals
himself in the Scriptures that have been available to man since the
days of Moses -- and even before, by direct personal revelation.

God is neither one single supernatural Person nor a Trinity. In
John 1:1-5, 14, God is revealed as a divine FAMILY, originating with
two Persons -- the "WORD" who later became Jesus Christ, and God,
who, upon Jesus' birth, became the Father. Genesis 1:1 speaks of God
as the origin of all, and creator of all. There, the English name God
is translated from the Hebrew Elohim -- a plural, meaning more than
one person -- that is, God and the "Word."

Part one revealed God's PURPOSE to be the reproduction of the GOD
FAMILY through humans. God creates by dual stages. First he created
the human family, out of which by spiritual reproduction shall be
created the GOD FAMILY.

Bear in mind these basic truths: Two cannot walk together except
they be agreed. Neither can two or more proceed in harmony and peace
except one leads. God and the Word, both immortal, composed of
spirit, had always lived the WAY of outflowing LOVE, with God supreme
head. Their way of life -- outflowing love, cooperation, harmony --
constituted a LAW, the LAW OF GOD. It is a spiritual law. With God as
supreme head and ruler, it became a GOVERNMENT over all they created.

First of all God created angels. Next God created the material
universe, including the earth. On the earth was set a THRONE. On that
throne God placed the super archangel Lucifer, a cherub, to
administer the GOVERNMENT OF GOD over earth's inhabitants. A third of
the angels were placed on the earth. Lucifer had been created with
dazzling beauty. This went to his head and he became vain,
self-centered, hostile to God's LAW as a way of life. He later sought
to overthrow the throne of God in heaven but was cast back down to
earth. His way of life, VANITY, self-glory, competition, hostility,
self-centeredness, every person doing his own thing, became the basic
LAW administered over the earth.

Next, God created MAN in God's own image -- form and shape. Man
was mortal like animals, but differing as to form and shape, and in
MIND. To human brain was added human spirit, empowering human brain
with intellect, thus making possible a relationship between man and
God.

In all this world's learning and recorded knowledge the one most
basic and all-important dimension has been missing. That great super
colossal, yet unknown TRUTH, is the one supreme PURPOSE of the great
Creator God, and his master plan for working out that overall
PURPOSE.

This supreme duality of knowledge is 1) God purposes to REPRODUCE
HIMSELF through mankind created from the dust of the ground of the
earth and 2) his MASTER PLAN of 7,000 years for its accomplishment.

Neither the grand and glorious PURPOSE, nor the MASTER PLAN for
its supreme achievement, are known, understood or taught by any
religion. They are totally unknown to modern science. They are
neither known nor taught by education or any university of higher
learning.

This is REVEALED knowledge, and its revelation is contained in the
world's most widely distributed, best-selling book. Yet that book is
the most totally misunderstood, most distorted, falsely interpreted,
misrepresented of books. That book is an enigma. It is a coded book
and the one instrument of decoding into plain and simple
UNDERSTANDING is the very tree of life, which the father of all
humanity -- Adam -- rejected; and which is today opened ONLY to those
called and drawn by God to come to him through Jesus Christ -- those
called to be the one true original Church of God. Without the
indwelling of God's Holy Spirit none can understand that book.

God's PURPOSE is to reproduce himself through man -- reproduce the
GOD FAMILY from the human family. It is vital to bear in mind that
God is perfect spiritual character. Character is ability to choose
the true values from the false, right from wrong, and to WILL to do
the right -- even against self-desire.

The first man Adam had only temporary animal existence. To become
begotten and then born into the GOD family, he first, with human
mind, had to make that choice -- develop with God's help that godly
CHARACTER.

Adam did not possess eternal life. But it was offered to him
through the symbolic "tree of LIFE" in the garden of Eden.

Lucifer, now named Satan because of sin, deceived Eve into taking
the forbidden symbolic fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and
evil.

The first human, Adam, took to himself the production of knowledge
of good and evil.

In this episode, revealed in Genesis 3, man and his human family,
potentially God's children, were kidnapped -- became the property of
Satan. They chose Satan's WAY -- self-centeredness -- instead of
God's will. They chose the law of Satan instead of the spiritual law
of God. Sin is the transgression of GOD'S law.

Thus the first human parent of the human family rejected the
GOVERNMENT OF GOD. In choosing the forbidden tree, he yielded to the
basic law of Satan's government over the earth. Adam and Eve were, in
real fact, kidnapped by Satan into his way of life. They chose to
follow the way of life of the kidnapper.

Adam could have qualified to RESTORE the GOVERNMENT OF GOD on
earth. Instead, he and his human family -- this world -- have to this
very day been HELD CAPTIVE by Satan, who sits still on earth's
throne.

Out of Adam and Eve developed human civilization. Had Adam chosen
the tree of LIFE, he would have been brought into direct relationship
with God -- begotten as God's own son. Through God's Spirit joined
with his human spirit, he would have had the ability to understand
God's spiritual purposes and knowledge, and be able to develop the
very mind of God. He would have been led by God in building GOD'S
WORLD. Instead, he was led by Satan, and the whole world family,
started through Adam, was DECEIVED into building a civilization that
became SATAN'S WORLD -- a WORLD HELD CAPTIVE.

It has developed systems of government over cities and nations, an
economic system, a social system -- all based on the principle of
"GET" rather than outflowing love, cooperation, harmony and peace. It
has developed into a competitive world, based on Satan's law -- every
man for himself, vanity, coveting, strife.

It might well appear that Satan struck his master stroke in
kidnapping Adam, the first human, by whom God purposed to reproduce
himself millions of times over. But God's PURPOSE cannot be thwarted.

That is the reason God then, at the very time of Adam's
disobedience and kidnapping, decreed that Jesus, the second Adam,
should come. He would be God's means of paying for the ransom to
reclaim his potential children. Further, Jesus would be the SECOND
ADAM. To use a modern slang term, it would be "a whole new ball
game." The very begotten FAMILY OF GOD, for which Adam had been
created, would now be started in and through the SECOND ADAM.

Jesus, unlike the first Adam, did choose the tree of LIFE. He did
obey God. He met, conquered and qualified to replace Satan on the
throne of the earth. At the same time, God decreed that as in Adam
all would pay the penalty of DEATH, so in Christ, the second Adam,
the SAME ALL would in God's due time be resurrected again to physical
life, brought to judgment, sentenced to eternal death, but then learn
that their death penalty had been paid for them by Jesus Christ and
the tree of LIFE then reopened to them in the Great White Throne
Resurrection (Rev. 20:11-12).

After some 4,000 years of the world that developed into a world of
human good and satanic evils, Jesus came.

He came as the second ADAM, to found GOD'S WORLD, which the first
Adam failed to start.

Jesus' coming BEGAN the SPIRITUAL PHASE of God s creation of
humans. Jesus did not come to reform or save this world -- Satan s
world. He came to start a DIFFERENT WORLD. It was God's plan to start
it through his CHURCH.

Foundation of God's World

Jesus said: "I will build my church" (Matt. 16:18). The word
church is translated from the Greek and means "called-out ones." He
chose and called his 12 original disciples or students, and taught
them the ways of the KINGDOM OF GOD.

It was prophesied of Jesus in Isaiah 9:6-7 that he would be born
as a babe, grow up and the GOVERNMENT (of God) would be on his
shoulders. He would bring peace to the earth. Satan's world has
brought contention, confusion, division, hostility, violence,
destruction, war and death. The Messiah, Jesus Christ, would RESTORE
the GOVERNMENT OF GOD to the planet earth.

Jesus brought the gospel message from God to mankind -- not to
convert and change Satan's world, but to ANNOUNCE the coming
world-ruling GOD kingdom as a witness. Jesus came not on a "soul-
saving crusade," nor did he plead with people to "accept him as
Savior." When the woman at Jacob's well asked him for the "living
waters" of the Holy Spirit (salvation), he merely told her of her
sins.

The word gospel means "good news." Jesus was a newscaster,
announcing in advance the NEWS of the coming KINGDOM OF GOD.

Since God's PURPOSE is to reproduce himself -- expand the God
FAMILY -- and since it shall be the world-ruling family, then the
KINGDOM OF GOD will be the born family of God ruling the entire
world. NO RELIGION ON EARTH UNDERSTANDS THIS PIVOTAL TRUTH! It is a
DECEIVED world -- held captive by Satan.

The Church of God was the embryonic beginning of the soon-to-be
world-ruling and world-filling KINGDOM OF GOD.

The Church began with the ONE man, the second Adam, Jesus Christ.
He expanded it to the 12 he himself chose and called and taught.
During his ministry God had called a few others to believe his gospel
message and follow him. Even among them, several followed only a
short time and fell away. By the day of Pentecost, 120 received God's
Holy Spirit, were baptized and became BEGOTTEN (but not yet born)
children of God.

After his 3 1/2 -year ministry, Jesus gave himself as a ransom to
be crucified, paying the penalty for all the sins of all mankind who
would repent, believe, grow in grace and God's knowledge, overcome
and endure to the end of each one's human life.

Jesus commissioned his apostles to teach others, as many as God
should call. The New Testament throughout teaches that ONLY those God
chooses and spiritually calls, could come to him through Jesus. Jesus
said: "No man can come to me, except the Father which heath sent me
draw him" (John 6:44).

Those so called and chosen by God for his kingdom were called "out
from among them, [to] be ... separate" (II Cor. 6:17). Jesus did not
live as part of this world, its ways and customs -- nor must those
called.

This present evil world of Satan -- the kidnapped world -- had its
foundation in the first Adam. It was at the FOUNDATION of this world
that God decreed that Jesus, as the Lamb of God, would come to pay
the ransom price (Rev. 13:8).

Jesus, during his earthly ministry, likened this world to a
building. In Ephesians 2:20-22 the Church is likened to a building.

Jesus, in referring to the present evil world, said it is built on
a foundation of the sand of Satan's way of vanity, covetousness, envy
and jealousy, competition and strife, violence, rebellion,
contention, unhappiness, suffering and death. THIS WORLD IS DOOMED TO
CRASH! And great shall be the fall thereof.

Jesus did not come to repair or remodel or make over this building
-- this world -- this civilization. Its foundation is faulty -- that
of Satan. Its superstructure -- its systems of government and legal
systems of law and justice, its systems of faulty and materialistic
education, its religions, its social systems and customs -- all its
superstructures faulty, producing discontent, unhappiness,
contention, competition and strife leading to violence and
destruction, anguish, suffering, poverty and death. Those are the
supporting columns and beams of the superstructure of the building
that is this world. Jesus did not come to reform this world -- to
bring it a "spiritual revival" -- to pray for it or to save it or any
of its ways.

The Church is the start -- the embryo -- of an entirely NEW and
DIFFERENT BUILDING.

Jesus called those God has chosen to draw OUT from among this
world and its ways. Those called out must continue to live on the
same earth. They are taught even to be subject to its governments
over them; not to OBEY when that would mean disobedience to God, but
to be subject -- if necessary, even to whatever penalties they
impose.

Why the Church Age?

Since Jesus founded the Church -- the foundation of the coming
world of God -- more than 1,950 years have passed. One might wonder,
WHY these more than 1,950 years of the "church age," before
establishing the Kingdom?

God's purpose is to choose and call certain ones out from the ways
of Satan's world, and train them to become teachers and rulers when
God sends Christ back to earth as KING of kings and LORD of lords to
rule, teach and convert all who then shall be willing. All who have
lived in this world and become set in its wrong and evil ways must be
taught the right ways of God.

Those converted and finally saved in the Church then shall be
kings and priests and given power to rule and teach all others (Rev.
2:26-27; 3:21; 5:10). For this nearly 2,000 years of training, Jesus
has been High Priest and head of the Church, in heaven supervising
his Church.

On Christ's return in supreme power and glory, Satan shall be
removed from earth's throne. Jesus Christ will sit on the throne of
David ruling over Israel and also on the THRONE OF THE EARTH, now
still held by Satan.

Church to Be Ready

The Church shall have been made ready for her stupendous
responsibility of rulership under Christ, by the time of his return
as KING of kings and LORD of lords.

What, then, is the real PURPOSE of the Church? WHY did Jesus found
the Church? Was it to repair the superstructure of the faulty and
decadent BUILDING to which I have likened this present evil world?
Was it to "save" by conversion this sinning world of Satan? And was
it to become divided into many divisions or branches, Orthodox, Roman
Catholic and Protestant?

The whole professing "Christian" world has been deceived. All
nations have been deceived. The ninth verse of Revelation 12 states
this emphatically and plainly.

God started his supreme mission and PURPOSE of reproducing himself
through the first human, Adam. But to become a begotten child of God,
so that he might, on acquiring the spiritual character of God, be
BORN into the divine FAMILY OF GOD, Adam was required to make a
choice. He chose apostasy, rebellion, self-righteousness mixed with
evil -- the way of the kidnapper of the potential family of God.

God said plainly to Adam, that on the disobedience of taking the
forbidden fruit, he would surely die. His temporary existence ran out
and he died after 930 years.

Study Ephesians 2:1-2. Satan, as prince of the power of the air,
actually works IN -- within -- the natural born children of Adam.
Satan worked within Adam's first son, when he slew his brother Abel.
All Adam's children have sinned. All, up to those living today, DIE.

But, it was decreed at the foundation of this world -- at the time
of Adam's sin -- that as in Adam all should die, so in Christ, the
second Adam, the same ALL should be brought back to life through
resurrection from the dead.

The tree of LIFE was closed to all humanity until Christ the
SECOND ADAM. He was born of his mother, the virgin Mary, of the
Adamic human family. But her son Jesus was fathered, not by MAN, a
son of Adam, but by GOD. As a son of GOD, the tree of LIFE was opened
to him. But as a son of MAN, he, like the first Adam, was required to
make a CHOICE!

Satan tried to destroy him as an infant, but God moved to prevent
that. Then, at about age 30, before he could preach a word of God's
message, the gospel, Satan attacked him head-on. In this temptation
(Matt. 4:1-11), Jesus made his choice. He rejected Satan's temptation
and way of life. He chose God's way, according to the Scriptures. He
defeated Satan, commanding him to depart from him, and the defeated
Satan slunk away. JESUS HAD QUALIFIED TO REPLACE SATAN ON THE THRONE
OF THE EARTH! Thus, as Jesus said in Mark 1:15, the time was
fulfilled and the kingdom of God was at hand.

The SECOND ADAM had passed the test. He had overthrown Satan. He
had qualified to replace Satan on earth's throne and to RESTORE THE
KINGDOM OF GOD. Sin and rebellion had started with the one man, Adam.
Righteousness and obedience leading to PEACE now started with the one
man, Jesus Christ. He was the BEGINNING--THE FOUNDATION -- of the
altogether NEW "building" -- the new world--the new civilization --
the WORLD Tomorrow!

The Church Still Stands

Jesus said he would build his Church. His Church was that new
building -- that new civilization -- that new world, in embryo.

He also said the Church would never die. The rains would fall
(Matt. 7:24-27), the floods would come, the hurricanes would blow,
but this NEW house built on the solid rock foundation would ALWAYS
stained!

Jesus did not say "churches." Paul said they would all "speak the
same thing" -- no divisions. Where is that Church today? Write for
our free booklet Where Is the True Church for the enlightening
answer.